A Medical Device Daily

Inviro Medical Devices (Atlanta) reported an agreement with group purchasing organization Yankee Alliance (Andover, Massachusetts) for Inviro’s portfolio of InviroSNAP Safety Syringe products to Yankee’s more than 50 acute care hospitals, primarily in New England and New York, as well as thousands of alternate U.S. sites.

Yankee Alliance, through its association with Premier (San Diego) enables their member healthcare organizations to secure improved pricing. Inviro was awarded a three-year contract in October 2007 with Premier.

“This contract with Yankee Alliance places our manually retractable safety syringes in the hands of respected and strategically located healthcare organizations throughout the Northeast,” said Jim Charlesworth, senior VP of strategic accounts for Inviro.

All of the infection control company’s safety and standard syringe products are available to Yankee members, including the InviroSNAP with InviroSTRIPE, featuring a patented, write-on stripe that allows information to be recorded directly onto the syringe barrel. The label helps institutions address The Joint Commission recommendations regarding medication labeling to reduce medication errors.

InviroSNAP Safety Syringes feature a unique manually retractable design, according to Inviro. With hand and fingers positioned behind the needle, the clinician administers the dose, pulls the plunger back, causing the needle to retract inside the barrel, and snaps off the plunger, permanently disabling the device. The InviroSTRIPE feature was added to the product line last year.

Inviro manufactures safe medication delivery systems.

In other agreements:

• Scott & White (S&W; Temple, Texas) reported signing final agreements that will bring a regional medical center to Texas.

The healthcare system reported last April that it intended to build a facility south of Marble Falls where local groups, including the nearby Llano Memorial Healthcare System (San Antonio) had worked to bring expanded medical services to the region.

The parties signed definitive agreements, including agreements transferring management of the Llano Memorial Healthcare System, including the 30-bed Llano Memorial Hospital and its network of rural clinics, to Scott & White.

Contracts were also established with the 22 doctors of the Hoerster Clinics which have long been serving the area. Other agreements outlined plans to bring utility services to the site of the new hospital, located about five miles from Marble Falls. Construction on the hospital, now estimated at between 70 and 120 beds, will begin once the utilities are in place, which is expected to be in the next 18 to 24 months.

S&W is a three-hospital healthcare system established in 1897.

• The Premier Healthcare Alliance (San Diego) and the WNC Health Network (WNCHN; Asheville, North Carolina) reported that six more Premier member hospitals in the Carolinas and Virginia have joined WNCHN, bringing to 52 the number of hospitals receiving supply chain savings through affiliation with WNCHN’s group purchasing program.

The newest members are: Lenoir Memorial Hospital (Kinston, North Carolina); Wayne Memorial Hospital (Goldsboro North Carolina); Maria Parham Medical Center (Henderson North Carolina); Loris Healthcare System (Loris, South Carolina); Stanly Regional Medical Center (Albemarle, North Carolina); Buchanan General Hospital (Grundy, Virginia).